The Rich History of a Rich Liqueur

I think of it as the smarter man's amaretto. 

Frangelico is a hazelnut-flavored liqueur (a noisette) that is enjoyed all over the world. Its rich, nutty flavor makes it a popular ingredient in cocktails and desserts. But what exactly is Frangelico, and where does it come from?

According to legend, Frangelico has been around since the 17th century, when monks in Italy created a hazelnut liqueur that they called 'Fra Angelico.' They were allegedly  inspired by a hermit of the same name who lived in the Piedmont region of Italy and created a similar concoction that was said to have healing properties. The monks took the recipe and improved upon it, creating Frangelico as we know it today.

The bottle is even designed to look like a Franciscan friar, complete with a cord tied around the waist.

Confusion may arise because the most famous Fra Angelico, whose painting of the Annunciation made me write about this delicious drink just before Easter was a Dominican and not a Franciscan. But, of course, this drink was allegedly inspired by a completely different person.

Frangelico is made in a similar manner to some other nut liqueurs: the nuts are crumbled up and combined with cocoa, vanilla berries, and other ingredients before being left to soak in the base spirit. After the spirit has absorbed the flavor of the ingredients, the resulting distillate is then blended with the other ingredients to create the final product.

Frangelico has a sweet, nutty flavor that makes it a popular ingredient in cocktails and desserts. It is often served on the rocks, as a digestif after a meal, or as a component in cocktails.

One popular cocktail is the "Frangelico Sour," which is made with Frangelico, lemon juice, simple syrup, and egg white. Another popular cocktail is the "Nutty Irishman," which is made with Frangelico, Irish cream liqueur, and coffee.

It can be drizzled over ice cream or used in a sauce for cakes or other desserts.

My personal favourite is a very simple affair, as you might expect.

1 cocktail glass

Crushed ice

Serving of Frangelico

Freshly squeezed juice from a quarter of a lime

Enjoy!

Good Friday

Good Friday is a solemn and sacred day in the life of the Christian Church, and when it comes to food, this has consequences for Catholics in particular.

That isn't to say that the Christians don't take today seriously. They do. A friend was mine, now sadly deceased, was an Episcopalian. The kind who sincerely believed he was both an Episcopalian and a Catholic, He would eat nothing until after he had been to church in the afternoon for the Good Friday service and then, at about 5pm, he would have some buttered toast. Of course, committed Eastern Orthodox would have been horrified at the idea of the butter dripping all over hot toast. What an indulgence!

In the West we take a more flexible approach.

I've never tried vegan Lent. This year I went vegetarian and that was penance enough.

By tradition, and by law, Good Friday, like Ash Wednesday, is a day of both fasting for abstinence.

So no meat.

But the fasting is somewhat lenient. The rule is that you may only have one meal and two smaller meals which do not equal the one main meal. 

How we apply this is left to our conscience. 

Apparently Cardinal Wiseman used to have a lobster on Good Friday.

But he never looked like a man who would risk wasting away through excessive fasting.

I wouldn't choose to have lobster myself but neither could I condemn a man (or woman) for choosing to do say. The penance is in abstinence from meat, and from denying ourselves what we would normally eat.

It doesn't mean dining on dust and ashes.

There are plenty of delicious things which are meat-free.

There's nothing more English than fish and chips and a (small!) portion would be well within the spirit and letter of the law concerning Good Friday.

Fig Monday

The second day of Holy Week is sometimes known as 'Holy Monday,' but in the Middle Ages, it came to be known as 'Fig Monday,' because of its association with Christ's cursing of the fig tree. The Gospel of the day used to be the account in St Mark’s Gospel of Christ cursing the fig tree. Currently in the present Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite we are given the account in St John’s Gospel of St Mary Magdalene anointing the feet of Our Lord whilst at supper..

We are told he was hungry but when he came to the fig tree he saw that, although its leaves were green, there were no figs on it. Then he cursed it - it would never bear fruit again.

According to Mark's account, Jesus and the disciples are on their way to Jerusalem when Jesus curses a fig tree because it bears no fruit; in Jerusalem he drives the money-changers from the temple; and the next morning the disciples find that the fig tree has withered and died, with the implied message that the temple is cursed and will wither because, like the fig tree, it failed to produce the fruit of righteousness.

The meaning seems clear when we consider the Lord's parables. In particular we might remember that parable of the barren fig tree in Luke 13.

The point of the account is more about mankind than trees, or even foodstuffs. It is a condemnation on the outward show of the religion, which lacks the fruit of true religion, the true love of man for God.